Line of Duty series 5: Cast, release date, spoilers, deaths and everything you need to know about the BBC One series

The storming finale to Line of Duty's fourth series finally delivered answers about Roz Huntley's corrupt activities and the identity of the murderous Balaclava Man.

But we were left with a whole heap of fresh questions. Will Steve recover from his injuries? Is Kate done as an undercover cop? What happened to Maneet? And was ACC Hilton really the corrupt officer known as 'H' – or could it be Hastings?

Here's everything we know so far about the next series – the fifth chapter in Jed Mercurio's corrupt-cop opus.

Line of Duty series 5 trailer: Can I watch footage from new episodes?

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

You can! A brief teaser dropped on September 24, 2018... and Arnott's got face fuzz!

Elsewhere in the tense clip, Hastings details a new case to Detective Sergeant Fleming. "AC-12 is being met with an institutional cover up," he explains. "We need to get to the root of it."

A second clip landed two months later, on Boxing Day, 2018 as a belated Christmas treat. In the sequence, Arnott and Fleming inform Hastings about a corrupt senior police officer's involvement in the planning of a robbery.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

🚨SOUND THE ALARM! IT'S THE WHOLE GANG BACK TOGETHER FOR THE NEW SERIES OF LINE OF DUTY. 🚨

"You're my best team," Hastings tells them. "If this is how you wanna call it, I will back you to the hilt."

The shifty look Hastings adopts when they both leave his office won't do anything to kill those "Hastings is H" rumours! (See below for more on that.)

Our first, full-length trailer finally dropped in early March, promising high stakes – with three police officers apparently murdered by the Balaclava Men – plenty of action and more slippery Hastings!

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

"Whatever it takes, I'm in," says Arnott. Us too!

Line of Duty series 5 cast: Who's returning?

Maneet Bindra (Maya Sondhi) is also confirmed to return. The apparently loyal PC leaked confidential AC-12 files, and got away with it, but Mercurio told Digital Spy: "I think that we have to address [Maneet's fate] in the future. Quite how we'll do that remains to be seen."

Sam appearing to have unfinished business with ex-boyfriend Steve in series four's finale. As for Hargreaves, Mercurio has hinted that he's another candidate to be the No.1 bent cop pulling all the strings. "His name begins with 'H' as well – it was something that we were aware of!"

Mercurio has also hinted that series four's chief antagonist Roz (Thandie Newton) could also be back. "It was reasonably conclusive that Roz had accepted her guilt and she was serving her sentence, but we never close the door on any living character," he told TV Times. "There are always ways in which we'd bring someone back for the right story."

World Productions / BBC / Bernard Walsh

But Newton's on-screen husband Lee Ingleby told us that he doubts he'll be returning. "I can't see it, because I played a corporate lawyer. I don't know how that'll slot in with police corruption. But you never know. Jed has got a wonderful mind, so who knows?"

"I wouldn't be able to tell you [if I'm in the next series]. Jed [Mercurio, writer] would kill me, he would kill me dead. I know nothing about anything ever," she told Digital Spy. "I don't even think I was even in Line of Duty, that's how secretive I have to be."

"I'd love it if Buckells came back again, but I just don't know!" Boyle said. "I don't think anyone's going to know until the scripts have been written. But I'd be absolutely delighted to come back."

Interestingly, Mercurio also posted an image which appeared to show Stephen Graham conversing with actor Craig Parkinson, who played devious 'Dot' Cottan / The Caddy in the first three series of Line of Duty.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Line of Duty series 5 release date: When will it air?

In part, the hiatus was to accommodate Mercurio's new BBC One drama series, Bodyguard. "I think it's Jed doing Bodyguard because it's quite a big show to write, so that is all [that's holding things up] I think," Vicky McClure told Digital Spy in February 2018.

Compston later suggested "April" 2019 as a possible air-date for the fifth series.

Line of Duty deaths: Who will survive series 5?

Fans were horrified when it appeared Steve Arnott had met his end at the hands (and bat) of Balaclava Man, but Mercurio later insisted that he never seriously considering killing off the popular waistcoat model.

World Productions / BBC / Bernard Walsh

"We obviously wanted to create the jeopardy and we wanted to create the uncertainty in the audience's mind. But I didn't think that it was the right way for the character to exit the series, so Steve will live to fight another day!"

That doesn't necessarily mean, though, that Steve – or Kate, or Ted – will make it to the end of the next series unscathed. (Mercurio has said in the past that he'd "definitely" kill off one of the main trio, if the story warranted it.)

Line of Duty spoilers: What's next for AC-12?

BBCBBC

Series four's Balaclava Man, who had been abducting and murdering women, and who also attacked Steve, was shot in the head by Hastings. But there wasn't just one Balaclava Man – it's "Balaclava Men, plural" and "there may be others still at large".

Series five will open with a series of new crimes having rocked the community two years after the last Balaclava Man attack, and – in a significant format change – this series of Line of Duty will be a deep dive into the Balaclava gang conspiracy, rather than focusing on a single corrupt police officer.

"Rather than looking at the corrupt police offers this time, we're looking at the other side of the coin, which is the [organised crime group]," Mercurio explained.

But who's running the Balaclava Men, and using dead bodies contaminated with planted DNA to blackmail high-ranking police officers?

There have been references to two figures, 'H' and 'Top Dog', and if the late ACC Hilton was H, the top corrupt cop, then possibly Top Dog is his boss – not a police officer but an out-and-out criminal with considerable power and influence.

BBC

"There are some people there's no immunity from," dodgy solicitor Jimmy Lakewell (Patrick Baladi) told Steve. Of course, if H wasn't Hilton, but is really Hastings, or Hargreaves or someone else, then it's possible that H and Top Dog are the same person.

AC-12 will have their work cut out unravelling this conspiracy, but could be a very different unit going forward.

"Steve and Kate are now characters in their 30s, rather than in their 20s, and Hastings has been heading AC-12 for a good number of years now," Mercurio told us.

World Productions / BBC / Bernard Walsh

"So all of these things have to be looked at in terms of the evolution of the characters, and we have to keep moving forward. There does come a point where we have to develop things in a new direction if they're to remain exciting and fresh dramatically."

Steve was last seen still struggling to regain mobility after being assaulted, while Kate may no longer be viable as an undercover cop after being deployed once too often, so it's possible that both will be taking on different roles in series five.

"There are things we haven't done before, characters we haven't seen before, and that I think's part of the construction of the series," he said. "We have that architecture which allows us to rejuvenate the format."

"The fact that Hilton is a very good fit for 'H' – and [corrupt cop] Dot Cottan would know that he was 'H' – is something that is consistent with the series as it has gone before," Mercurio said. "But the fact that there could be a suspicion that Hastings is 'H' is something that we want to exploit dramatically going forward."

Again, Dunbar said: "I think it would be difficult to explore some aspects of Ted's past, because Line of Duty investigates fictitious police forces – you never know, and you should never know, who it is we might be investigating.

"We've already said that Ted was a member of the RUC and that's a real police force, so I don't think we'd be able to broach that territory. However, there might be individuals, people from his past, who maybe know something about Ted, or that he knows something about!"

Line of Duty series 6: How long will the series last?

Director-General of the BBC, Tony Hall, announced in May 2017 that Line of Duty would be returning for not just a fifth but also a sixth series, following three series on BBC Two and a successful transition to BBC One for the fourth.

Of course, with series five being delayed, in all likelihood the earliest we'd see the series after that would be in 2020.

World Productions/ BBC / Bernard Walsh

So would series six mark the end of Line of Duty? Not necessarily, according to Adrian Dunbar.

"If Jed's prepared to write beyond series six, then that would be fantastic," he said. "It'll be down to the public as well, I think. If they stick with the show and they love the show and stay loyal to it, then it could go on and on. Who knows?"

Line of Duty US remake: Are we getting an American version?

Tabloid rumblings had suggested that AC-12 might be heading Stateside, claiming that Amazon and Netflix were both keen on commissioning a US version of Line of Duty.

However, Mercurio later poured cold water on those rumours. "I don't know where the story about the US remake came from," he told us. "I looked it up online and the journalist quotes an 'anonymous source' – who I assume is just someone they ran into in the pub.

"So I have no idea what that's about, or why it's been printed now."

Of course, if Mercurio is any bit as cunning as his characters in an interview scenario, it's possible he was having us on...

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

This commenting section is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page. You may be able to find more information on their web site.

DIGITAL SPY, PART OF THE HEARST UK ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK
Digital Spy participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.